Protein accumulation, modifications and aggregation are pathological aspects of numerous neurodegenerative diseases. A subgroup of the neurodegenerative diseases, known as motor neuron diseases is characterized by the gradual degeneration and death of motor neurons. One of the most common members of this group of disorders, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that attacks the neurons responsible for controlling voluntary muscles, specifically motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem, and motor cortex (Bruijn et al., Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 27 (2004), 723-749). In 90 to 95 percent of all ALS cases, the disease's etiology is unknown with no clearly associated risk factors (sporadic ALS, sALS). Only 5 to 10 percent of all ALS cases are inherited (familiar ALS, fALS), with about 20 percent of them resulting from mutations in the gene producing the superoxide dismutase [Cu—Zn] enzyme also known as superoxide dismutase 1 or SOD1 (Bruijn et al., Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 27 (2004), 723-749; Valentine et al., Annu. Rev. Biochem. 74 (2005), 563-593; Andersen, Curr. Neurol. Neurosci. Rep. 6 (2006), 37-46).
Human SOD1 is a 32 kDa homodimeric metalloenzyme, with the gene locus on the chromosome 21, localized predominantly in the cytosol, nucleus and peroxisomes but also in the mitochondrial intermembrane space of eukaryotic cells. It contains an active site that binds a catalytic copper ion and a structural zinc ion. The functional role of SOD1 is to act as an antioxidant enzyme catalyzing the dismutation of superoxide radical to dioxygen and hydrogen peroxide lowering in that way the steady-state concentration of superoxide and the oxidative stress to the cell (Fridovich, Science 201 (1978), 875-879).
Over 100 different mutations, spread all over the SOD1 protein are known (http://alsod.iop.kcl.ac.uk/; Andersen, Amyotroph. Lateral Scler. Other Motor Neuron Disord. 1 Suppl. 1 (2000), S31-42; Andersen et al., Amyotroph. Lateral Scler. Other Motor Neuron Disord. 2 (2001), 63-69; Gaudette et al., Amyotroph. Lateral Scler. Other Motor Neuron Disord. 1 (2000), 83-89) and all but the D90A mutation cause dominantly inherited disease. It is not clarified completely, how mutant SOD1 leads to ALS. While some of the mutations differently affect the stability, metal ion affinity and enzymatic activity of the respective mutant SOD1-protein, others do not (Valentine et al., Annu. Rev. Biochem. 74 (2005), 563-593; Valentine and Hart, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100 (2003), 3617-3622; Lindberg et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 9754-9759; Taylor et al., Science 296 (2005), 1991-1995). However, the dominant inheritance of the disease in combination with the fact that SOD1 null mice do not develop ALS (Reaume et al., Nat. Genet. 13 (1996), 43-47) suggests that SOD1-mediated toxicity in ALS is not caused by a loss but rather by a gain of one or more toxic functions due to the mutations.
Three (G37R, G85R and G93A) of the known human mutations have been extensively characterized in transgenic mouse models (Bruijn and Cleveland, Neuropathol. Appl. Neurobiol. 22 (1996), 373-87; Gurney, N. Engl. J. Med. 331(1994), 1721-1722; Ripps et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92 (1995), 689-93; Wong et al., Neuron 14 (1995), 1105-16). The human mutant proteins are expressed ubiquitously at levels equal or several fold higher than endogenous mouse SOD1. Contrary to the overexpression of wildtype human SOD1, the overexpression of the mutant forms leads to development of ALS in the animals with pathology similar to the human disease. For example, comparable to the tissues from ALS patients, proteinaceous inclusions rich in aggregates of mutant SOD1 have been found in the neurons and astrocytes (Stieber et al., Neurol. Sci. 173 (2000), 53-62) as perikaryal deposits and as macromolecular complexes associated with various mitochondrial compartments (Manfredi and Xu, Mitochondrion 5 (2005), 77-87), and inside the endoplasmic reticulum (Kikuchi et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 103 (2006), 6025-6030).
The inclusions do not contain SOD1 solely. One of the additional, probably ALS causative as well, compounds of these is TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43). Pathogenic mutations in the gene encoding TDP-43 (TARDBP) were recently reported in familial and sporadic ALS patients and seem to be responsible for at least 3.3% of the fALS cases (Neumann et al., Science 314 (2006), 130-133; Rutherford et al., PLoS Genet. 4 (2008), e1000193).
SOD1 has been further reported to be a major target of oxidative damage in brains of Alzheimer Disease (AD) and Parkinson Disease (PD) patients. The total level of SOD1 was increased and proteinaceous aggregates that are associated with amyloid senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles were found in AD brains (Choi et al., J. Biol. Chem. 280 (2005), 11648-11655).
The exact mechanism leading to the aggregation of SOD1 is not known. Prevailing hypotheses however, suggest the aggregation of SOD1 as a consequence of the proteins misfolding due to mutation-induced conformational changes (Bruijn et al., Science 281 (1998), 1851-1854; Chattopadhyay and Valentine, Antioxid. Redox. Signal 11 (2009), 1603-1614; Furukawa et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103 (2006), 7148-7153; Prudencio et al., Hum. Mol. Genet. 18 (2009), 3217-3226; Wang et al., PLoS Biol. 6, e170 (2008)). Misfolded mutant or wtSOD1 is also secreted by glial cells to the extracellular environment, where it can trigger the selective death of motor neurons (Urushitani et al., Nature Neuroscience 9 (2006). 108-118). This offers a possible explanation for the non-cell-autonomous nature of mutant SOD1 toxicity and the rapid progression of disease once the first symptoms develop.
As already mentioned, the etiology of spontaneous forms of ALS accounting for 90-95 percent of all incidents, is not clarified. However, it is also believed that similar to the observations concerning the familial ALS forms, misfolding of wild type (wt) SOD1 is associated with the majority of the sporadic ALS cases (Bosco et al., Nature Neuroscience 13 (2010), 1396-1403). Wildtype SOD1 is a subject of massive post-translational modifications, such as subunit dimerization, building of the intrasubunit disulfide bond between residues Cys57 and Cys146, and the coordination of copper and zinc. Disruptions of these processes have all been shown to cause wild-type SOD1 to aggregate (Durazo et al., J. Biol. Chem. 277 (2009), 15923-15931; Estévez et al., Science 286 (1999), 2498-2500; Rakhit et al., J. Biol. Chem. 279 (2004), 15499-15504; Lindberg et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101 (2004), 15893-15898) providing therefore a possible pathogenic model for spontaneous ALS forms. Immunotherapies targeting the mutant or misfolded SOD1 have produced encouraging results in animal models for familial ALS forms. Active immunization delayed disease's onset and mortality attenuated motor neuron loss and reduced SOD1 levels in SOD1 transgenic mice. The life-span extension correlated to antibody titers (Urushitani et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104 (2007), 2495-2500; Cashman, NDI conference Uppsala 2009, Takeuchi et al., J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. (2010), 1044-1056).
Passive immunization delayed bodyweight loss and hind limb reflex impairment and extended lifespan as well (Urushitani et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104 (2007), 2495-2500; Cashman, NDI conference Uppsala 2009; Gros-Louis Fetal., J. Neurochem 2010).
These findings highlight the potential benefit associated with active immunotherapy approaches targeting SOD1. Regardless of this high potential, approaches for active as well as passive immunotherapy can produce varying effects with respect to their efficacy towards specific therapeutic endpoints. As shown for Aβ directed approaches in preclinical mouse models of AD or in human, they can be also associated with adverse events such as autoimmune disease, meningoencephalitis, increased cerebral amyloid angiopathy and the induction of cerebral hemorrhages (Pfeifer et al., Science 298 (2002), 1379; Furlan et al., Brain 126 (2003), 285-291; Wilcock et al., J. Neuroinflammation 1:24 (2004); Lee at al., FEBS Lett. 579 (2005), 2564-8; Wilcock et al., Neuroscience 144 (2007), 950-960; Schenk, Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3 (2002), 824-828; Orgogozo et al, Neurology 61 (2003), 46-54). This might be less of a problem in the context of ALS without the occurrence of massive extracellular protein deposits but should be taken into account nevertheless.
Summarizing the above, novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed addressing misfolded/aggregated SOD1 proteins with efficacious and safe therapy.
Passive immunization with human antibodies which are evolutionarily optimized and affinity matured by the human immune system would provide a promising new therapeutic avenue with a high probability for excellent efficacy and safety.